Semiconductor measurement company Neocera has announced it has developed a platinum-based failure analysis imaging tool that measures magnetic fields to aid the detection of defects in semiconductor interconnect.

The machine, called the Magma C20, uses a platinum giant magnetoresistance sensor in conjunction with current injection at a frequency of about 10-kHz to which the sensor is tuned.

By using the sensor the Magma C20 can 'see' through the packaging and multiple interconnect layers to evaluate current intensity and to locate defects at a level far more sensitive than previously managed, the company said.

Jim Fraine, Neocera chief executive officer, said that unlike the Magma C20 traditional imaging tools such as thermal systems or x-rays were now unable to detect defects in the more complex integrated circuits.

The equipment is suitable for spotting stacked-die shorts, trace cracks, flip chip buried shorts, delaminated vias, non-wet wafer bumps, MCM shorts and resistive opens, and others, the company claimed.

Fraine said that the platinum sensor option would take spatial resolution down to 0.5-micron from about 3-micron.

Neocera was founded in 1989 to commercialize ceramic thin film technology, and has evolved into a measurement company with expertise in semiconductor and superconductor thin films.